


Bad Double

by OTPGirl



Series: Bad Double [1]
Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid
Genre: "interrogation techniques", Ambiguous/Open Ending, M/M, NO TORTURE IS SHOW, Not A Happy Ending, be we see the aftermath of it, but maybe a optimistic one, i'm a slut for wedding rings on chains, its torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:27:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22444837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OTPGirl/pseuds/OTPGirl
Summary: Wilbur Cross is angry that the plain he and Wiggly had been working on failed. But he knows if he could get back to Earth he could try again and that he could succeed, but he need someone to open a portal. Then he remembers the trick the he and Wiggly played on that little girl, making her see a dead loved one, and figures that they could do the same thing to get a portal open. They just need to do it to someone who has access to the portals. Wilbur know's one person who would have information on who could open one, and luckily enough, that person was here in the Black and White.
Relationships: Xander Lee/John McNamara
Series: Bad Double [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1630684
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	Bad Double

Wilbur Cross was fuming. The plan that he had been working on for the past ten years failed because of a couple dumb hicks from a small nowhere town that couldn’t just keep their fucking nose out of things that didn’t involve them. Wiggly just wanted to enslave them to his will, what’s so wrong with that? Of course they would never have had the chance if McNamara hadn’t given that teenager his gun. Even when trapped here in the Black and White John McNamara managed to be a thorn in his side. Wilbur knew that his plan could still succeed, he just needed a way to get back to his original dimension. Unfortunately, when all the Wiggly dolls got destroyed Wiggly lost some of his power and now was unable to transport Wilbur back and forth between dimensions. If he could only get control of one of the portals…. well he supposes the one in Russia was destroyed, so that only leaves the one in P.E.I.P headquarters. 

With that, an idea came to Wilburs mind. When that child had the last Wiggly doll in Hatchetfield Wiggly had been able to speak to her through a hallucination of someone close to her to try to get her to give up the doll. Maybe, just maybe they could do it again. They had John trapped here in the Black and White so he would be easy enough to imitate him, especially if they could hunt him down and have him present when they went through with his plan. They would have to figure out the best person to contact, but that should be easy enough to do with a little... persuasion. With a snap of his fingers he summoned a pack twelve of Sniggles.

“Go hunt down McNamara, bring him back to me. And please, try not to kill him. My plan works best if he’s still alive.” The sniggles scurred off and Wilbur strolled in the other direction to go speak with Wiggly, whistling a tune as he went. 

“So, boss. I have a plan.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John McNamara does not regret what he did. He really doesn’t! When he ran into the Black in White he knew what he was doing, he knew that if he didn’t all would be lost. 

He just didn’t know that it would be so boring. 

John was stuck with nothing but his thoughts, and his mind kept wandering back to Xander. He misses the other man more than he thought was possible. John was sitting on the ground and rubbed his hand across his face, sighing deeply as he did. This is what it was going to be like for the rest of eternity. 

He heard a sound off to his left, and turned his head to look over that way, noticing movement farther out. He quickly stood up and took a few steps closer, squinting his eyes a little as he tried to make out what the movement could possibly be. As it got closer John was able to make it out for what it was, a pack of Sniggles racing towards him. John turned and began to run in the opposite direction. He hadn’t seen any Sniggles in well over a month, not since he had entered the Black and White, so the fact that a large group of them was moving towards him quickly was not a good sign. He looked back over his shoulder and saw the Sniggles getting closer, so he put on a burst of speed. John knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep ahead of them for long, John was human and would have to stop and rest at some point, but the Sniggles had not such limitation and would be able to run forever if they had to. 

John began looking around, trying to see if there was any place that he would be able to conceal himself, but was unable to find anything in the vast emptiness of the Black and White. He could hear the Sniggles right behind him and saw one of them reaching for him out of the corner of his eye and quickly dodged, zigzagging out of the way and changed the direction he was running, throwing the Sniggles off momentarily before they corrected their path and quickly caught back up with him. 

John had been running for a while at this point and was starting to get out of breath and knows that he’s going to get caught soon. One reached out and grabbed him by the hair and pulled him down to the ground. His head hit the ground hard and John swears he sees stars for a moment. The other Sniggles pounce on him and grab him, pulling him up and dragging him back in the direction they had come from. Once John’s head cleared slightly he began struggling against them, kicking and doing anything that he possibly could to try to get away, but everything he tried failed. They eventually managed to drag him in front of Wilbur and Wiggly, Wilbur smirking with his arms crossed.

“Hello there John. How are you finding my home? I do hope you’re enjoying yourself.” Wiggly’s voice floated vaguely from the direction that John could see his eyes floating. 

“What do you want Wiggly?” John was still being held back by the Sniggles, but his eyes were burning with disgust when his eyes landed on Wilbur. John saw no point in looking at Wiggly, for he had no true form, he was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. 

“We need your help with a little problem of ours.” Wilbur moved towards John as he spoke, coming to stand right in front of him, waving the Sniggles off with a hand and wrapped an arm around John’s shoulders and pulled him along to where he had been standing before.

“And why on earth would you think that I would ever help you?” John attempted to shrug off Wilbur’s arm, but the other man dug his fingers into his shirt, that combined with that fact that John was still a little woozy from when his head was hit against the ground made him unable to dislodge the other man’s arm.

“Oh John, come on now. Do you really think that we’re going to ask for your help? No, you are going to help us. The question for you is are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way? All you gotta do John, is tell us one name. That’s it. Just one name of someone at P.E.I.P who would be happy to see you again and would do anything you asked.” John snapped his gaze over to Wilbur and his mind was racing, trying to figure out what Wilbur could possibly do with that information. He was stuck in the Black and White, just like John was. Right? 

“Now I can see those wheels turning in your head, and I suppose that there is no harm in telling you that answer to that question in your brain. You see my friend here has a neat little trick. He can take the image of someone, you for example, and project it into the mind of someone else from our dimension. Now it works best if there is a strong emotional connection between the two people. It doesn't hurt either of them, so there's no reason for you to worry about that. But the image is so realistic that it looks like you could reach out and touch it. So all we need to know is who would be best to project your image to.” John’s eyes widened. His mind naturally went to Xander, but quickly shoves him from his thoughts. He wouldn’t tell Wilbur about Xander, he didn’t want to bring Xander to Wilburs attention. 

“If you think I’m going to tell you anything then your mind has been wrapped more than I had originally thought.” 

“Come on John, we went through the same training. You and I both know the interrogation techniques that we were taught. And we both know that I always had a more of a talent for it than you did.” Wilbur’s voice had a bit of a pleading tone to it, but it was almost not noticeable. He didn’t want to hurt John. They had been something once, and while there was no chance of anything like that happening again, nor did Wilbur want anything like that again, those memories of time spent together don’t just disappear. 

John’s jaw clenched as the meaning behind Wilbur’s words registered with him. His resolution only harden though, he would not tell them anything no matter what they did. 

“Do your worst Wilbur. You may have tested better in using those interrogation techniques, but if you remember correctly I was much better at resisting them, and you’ll find that that has not changed in the past thirteen years.” 

Wilbur took a big breath and sighed, shaking his head slightly with a grimace twistin his features. He waved several of the Sniggles back over and they grabbed John’s arms, wrenching them behind his back painfully causing him to let out a grunt in a mixture of shock and pain. Wilbur grabbed Johns jaw and forced him to tilt his head up so the two men were looking eye to eye. 

“Well John, you can’t say that I didn’t give you a choice.” 

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    


Wilbur had been using his interrogation techniques on John for what felt like hours and if it wasn’t for the Sniggles holding him up, John wasn’t sure that he would have the strength to be keeping himself up right. Hell he didn’t even have the strength to hold his head up straight. His body was littered with cuts and bruises. He had blood smeared across his face from a cut above his left eye and from when Wilbur delivered a particularly nasty right hook to his nose and John was certain that it was now broken, and there was a small puddle growing from blood dripping off his face beneath him. He also had at least one cracked, if not broken rib and his right shoulder felt dislocated due to a combination of the awkward way his arm was being forced behind his back and his own attempts at breaking free from the hold the creatures had on him. 

Despite all this, John remained firm and still refused to give them the name they were trying so desperately to extract from him, and refused to make a sound. Wilbur was taking a break from the physical side of interrogation and was now using the more mental side. 

“Come on John, you and I both know that you have no aversion to interpersonal relationships within P.E.I.P. There has to be someone you’ve grown close with over the past thirteen years. A field agent you’ve become close friends with. A young cadet you’ve taken under your wing that you’ve formed a mentor- mentee bond with. Anyone.” 

John didn’t have the strength to respond, so he didn’t. His hair was hanging like a curtain around his face, leaving Wilbur unable to see his face clearly. John’s clear ignorance of him angered the volatile man, so he reached forward and grabbed the bleeding man by the hair and yanked his head up, expecting to see some form of pain etched across his expression. Instead what he saw was nothing. John’s face was schooled into a neutral expression, giving the impression that he was unaffected by all of this. Even his eyes, which Wilbur was expecting to betray the pain he knew that John was feeling, where clear and not cloudy like he was expecting. Wilbur slapped John across the face, hard.

“I will get that name John. You can save yourself a lot more pain.” 

Wilbur let go of John’s hair and and his head lulled forward, blood continuing to drip from his face and the puddle continued to grow larger. Wilbur shook his head and turned to look up at where Wiggly’s eyes were floating, watching over the scene.

“What do you think boss, think that will be enough to let you do your thing?” John’s head was swimming so it took him a moment to register the words coming out of Wilbur’s mouth, but when he did he slowly lifted his head and looked over at the other man, who wasn’t looking at him. 

“I should think so. I must admit, you are very good at that Wilbur. I’m impressed.” Wilbur smiled and bowed his head slightly at the compliment. He waved the Sniggles away once again and watched as John fell to the ground now that he was no longer being held up. Wilbur walked over to John and crouched next to him as he pushed himself up on shaky arms. John was shocked as he felt a weird feeling in his head, almost like something was poking at his thoughts. His head whipped up and he looked over in the direction of the floating ‘eyes’ of Wiggly, as he did the sensation in his head worsened and became almost painful. He winced and flinched, looking away from the gaze of the otherworldly being but the sensation remained. Wilbur tisked and shook his head mockingly. 

“John, you must know that I knew you wouldn’t break. I know you better than that. But that was never what this was about. I just had to break you down a little. Just enough that Wiggly would be able to sneak in past your defenses. Now, I’m not going to lie to you, it’s going to hurt quite a bit, and not the kind of pain your used to.” 

John felt like his mind was being torn apart. The pain was coming from everywhere, it seemed like it was radiating from deep inside of him. John tried to hold it back, but a scream tore it’s way out of his throat. It was the first sound he made since the beginning of the interrogation. Wilbur was right, this was unlike any pain he had ever experienced. This sort of pain could easily drive a man mad. 

John’s memories were being torn into and he was able to vagley follow what Wiggly was looking at. The whole world seemed to stop as Wiggly zeroed in on his memories of Xander, and John tried everything he could possibly think of to try to prevent Wiggly from being able to access those, but he couldn’t do much.

“I think I found the perfect person. A man named Xander Lee. It appears that he is married to our good friend here. I think he’ll be the perfect target.” Wiggly quickly detached himself from John’s mind. He stopped screaming and his arms gave out, his breathing was ragged and shallow due to his injured ribs. 

“No.” he wheezed out, so quietly that Wilbur was unable to make out quite what he said, or really if he had even spoken. “Leave him alone, please.” He spoke louder, just enough for Wilbur to be able to hear him clearly. John was much too proud to beg for his own life, or to get the interrogation techniques, or torture if you want to be more blunt about it, to stop. But there was nothing he wouldn’t do for Xander. He would force himself up on his knees and beg at Wilbur’s feet if that's what it would take. Wilbur patted John on the back, none to gently, jostling his injured ribs. 

“Worry not John, I wasn’t lying when I told you this won’t hurt him. I will however need something to convince him that I, or rather we, are actually you. So…” Wilbur pulled the front of John’s shirt to the side and grabbed a chain that John had hanging around his neck and pulled it off. At the end of the chain was a plain, gunmetal colored wedding band. John shakily reached out to grab it out of the other man’s hand, but Wilbur quickly moved it out of reach. “I think this will do quite nicely.” 

Wilbur stood up and walked away from the man on the ground, who had a single tear running down his face. In the blink of an eye Wilbur was transformed to look like John and he took the ring taken from the man and held it in his left fist before looking over at his boss. When he spoke, it was the voice that matched the face that came out and not his own. 

“Ready whenever you are.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Xander Lee had thrown himself into his work in the past month, even more so than usual. After the end of the world had been avoided from both Wiggly and a nuclear war with the Russians, what he lost really hit him. He knew from the moment that John ran into the portal that he was gone, but he had no time to process it until much later. There is a difference between knowing something as a fact, and the feelings behind what two words really mean.

‘He’s gone’

Those two damn words bounced around his head far too often. Everytime he unconsciously reached out for John, the words where there. When he woke up alone in the morning in the now to big, to cold bed, the words where there. Xander was actively avoiding his quarters at this point. He couldn’t look anywhere without being reminded of John. Without those two words bouncing around in his brain. 

So when Xander had locked himself in his lab for 36 hours straight and he saw John standing off to the side of the room, the words naturally where there. Xander sighed and scrubbed his hand across his forehead, looking anywhere but John.

“They must be right.” he muttered to himself capping the expo marker he had been using “I’ve been pushing myself too hard. Especially now that I’m seeing a hallucination.” He began walking to the door and was about to flip the lights off when the image spoke. 

“Xander wait. It’s really me. You’re not hallucinating anything.” Xander froze has he, what he was certain is a hallucination spoke. He turned to look at him. It. John. Even if he is a hallucination, he is John Xander decided in his head. John looked exactly as Xander remembered. Maybe a little more tired but other than that, exactly the same. John reached out his left arm, his hand in a loose fist, clearly not in a threatening manner, more as if he was offering Xander something.

“Here, I can prove it. Come hold out your hand.” John had a soft smile on his face and Xander felt his walls crumble a bit, but he was still hesitant. He slowly walked over to the other man. When he came to a stop a few feet away from where John was standing he stared at him for a moment before holding his hand out beneath the fist. John opened his hand and for a moment nothing happened, but then Xander felt a cool weight drop into his hand. He gasped and looked at his hand. Sitting in his palm was a ring, but not just any ring. Xander recognized it immediately, it was an identical match to the one he was wearing on a chain around his neck, the only difference was the size. He looked back up at the other man, eyes wide in shock.

“John? H- how is this possible? I thought you were-” Xander cut himself off. It didn’t matter how, not really. All that mattered is that he wasn't gone. The two words that had been haunting him for what felt like forever suddenly didn’t matter anymore.

“I’m so sorry Xander, I didn’t want to leave you. But I had to, the world was depending on Howard and-” Xander raised his hand to cut John off, he reached forward to take the other man's hand, but it went right through. Xander’s good mood lowered a little at that. “Xander, I need your help.” 

“What do you need?”

“I need you to open the portal.” Xander took a step back when John said that. His mind was racing.

“Why do you want me to open the portal? Wasn't ... wasn't your body absorbed in the Black and White?” John shook his head. 

“No, I was wrong. I need you to open the portal Xander. If you do, I can come back and we can be together again. Don’t you want that?” 

“Don’t I- of course I want that John, more than anything. But what about Wiggly? Aren’t you worried about his getting back to this dimension? I mean we barely managed to defeat him last time.” 

“No he’s too weak to do anything, even if he wanted to. When the doll’s were destroyed he lost most, if not all, of his power. There is almost no risk. Xander please. I just want to hold you in my arms again.” Xander thought about what John was saying. It seemed to make sense, without the dolls Wiggly should have no power here. 

“Ok, I’ll go open the por-” 

“Xander stop!” John’s voice called out but Xander didn’t see his mouth move and it sounded like it came from the other side of the room. Xander turned, looking around the room and his eyes landed on John. But it wasn’t the John that he had been speaking to. This John was bleeding, had an arm wrapped around his side and looked like he was barely able to keep himself standing. Xander looked between the two Johns, the one he had been speaking to was glaring daggers at the other one, while the one who was injured had his eyes locked firmly on Xander. 

“Ok. What the hell is going on here?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John had never felt more defeated in his life. He had given the enemy information, his ring was stolen, and right now Wilbur was using his image to convince Xander to open the portal so he can get back to that dimension and try again to take over the world. So all and all not a very good day. 

“Xander wait. It’s really me. You're not hallucinating anything.” It was certainly strange hearing his own voice coming from somewhere off to the side. He had lost track of exactly where Wilbur was as his pain took front in center in his mind. Somehow was Wiggly did made all of his physical injuries hurt a lot worse. But as he heard Wilbur speaking in his voice, John forced himself to focus on what was going on. 

“Xander, I need your help.” John heard Wilbur, and then after a short pause he continued speaking. “I need you to open the portal.” John snapped his head up, eyes looking frantically at Wilbur. He forced himself up into a standing position, biting his tongue to prevent himself from crying out from the pain. When he finally managed to get to his feet he could hear Wilbur telling Xander a story about how Wiggly had no power. John knew that if he was going to do something, that it had to be now. 

He thought back to how he had contacted Lex. It was easy enough, he found the girl through her connection to the Black and White and just followed that connection back to her. Xander had no connection to the Black and White so that exact plan wouldn’t work. Instead John closed his eyes and focused on the connection between him and the other man. John thought about how drawn he always felt to Xander, and how much he loves him. Somehow that seemed to work. 

“- I just want to hold you in my arms again.” John’s eyes snapped open and he saw Xander standing in front of himself, more specifically Wilbur Cross pretending to be him. He saw Xander nod his head. 

“Ok, I’ll go open the por-” Xander started to say and John knew that he needed to stop this. Now.

“Xander stop!” John cried out, straining his injured ribs as he did so. He hissed and brought a hand up and wrapped his arm around his side. Xander’s head snapped over and he made eye contact with John. He could see the confusion in Xander’s eyes. John couldn’t say anything, he needed to take a second and take a breath. He was trying his hardest not to shake to badly, but he was certain Xander could tell something was wrong. He always could.

He looked back and forth between the two John’s for a moment before saying “Ok. What the hell is going on here?”

“This is a trick! He’s a fake made by Wiggly to try to convince you not to let me out of the Black and White.” Wilbur pointed at John, throwing out the accusation. John shook his head when Xander look back over at him.

“That’s not true Xander.” His voice was rough from when he was screaming only twenty minutes ago, but he kept speaking. “That’s Wilbur Cross, Wiggly is disguise him as me to trick you. There’s no way for me to come back Xander, you know that.” 

Xander shook his head. “No. There has to be a way. You can’t just be-” He cut himself off, unable to finish the statement. 

“There is! Xander just open the portal. The not John pleaded, obviously trying to get Xander back on his side. He looked over at Wilbur for a solid minute, seeming to be searching for something.When he was unable to find whatever it was he was looking for, he looked back at John, searching his eyes for whatever it was he so desperately needed. 

“I’m gone Xander.” That seemed to do it, because Xander looked away, giving a stiff nod. 

“I know. I-. You’re right. You’re gone and I need to accept it.” Xanders voice cracked a little, his voice betraying the emotions he was trying hard to hide now that he knew that someone other than John was around to see it. 

“Damn it!” Wilbur cried out, letting the illusion fall now that he knew there was no point in it anymore. He jabbed a finger angrily in John’s direction. “You’re going to fucking pay for this McNamara. And I can promise that by the time I’m done with you, you won’t even know your own damn name!” 

John refused to show any signs of weakness. He squared his shoulders and spoke as firmly as he could. “Looking forward to it Cross.” Wilbur rolled his eyes at that and disappeared. John looked back to Xander. “I don’t have much time Xander. But I didn’t get to say this before so I’m going to say it now. I love you so much, and I’m sorry that I hurt you like this.” 

“I love you too, so much. And I know why you had to do it.” His voice was wavering, so he had to take a breath before he continued. “Are you going to be ok?” 

“As long as I know that you’re ok, there’s nothing he can do to me.” John gave Xander a small, reassuring smile. “I can’t hold the connection any longer. I’m sorry. Remember how much I love you.” And with that John disappeared.

Xander managed to not breakdown in tears, but it was a close thing. He seemed to be running on autopilot as he left the lab and walked to his quarters. When he got there he sat down on the edge of his bed and looked down at his hand, which was closed in a fist. He slowly opened it and saw John’s ring sitting in the centre of his palm. Xander reached up and unclasped his cain and slipped John’s ring on next to his own. He fell asleep clutching the rings. 

When he woke up the next morning, it felt as if a weight had been lifted from his chest. He still felt the pain caused by John’s absence, and he knew that it was going to go away, but he knew that he wasn’t really gone. And that was enough. 

  
  


For now anyway. 

**Author's Note:**

> I have a sequel for this that I'm working on. It probably won't come out for a while, but it is coming.
> 
> I just love to hurt John, don't I? 
> 
> Come join my Black Friday Discord: https://discord.gg/f88FjFT  
> Come talk to me on Tumblr: https://ijustwantjohnmcnamaratobehappyok.tumblr.com/


End file.
